Some Things Really Are Priceless

"English? English? Shit, I thought you went to school for something. English ain't nothing."

The above quote is the response I get from people 90% of the time when I tell them that I am a Ph.D. candidate in English. In addition to that quote, I work with a gang of Education professors who look upon my graduate work with condescension because, as one Education professor put it, "You never have to do any quantitative studies. You just read and write, and what you all read and write really aren't pragmatic at all." Well, I can't argue with that. Anybody who has ever tried to read Lacan or Spivak knows that the obfuscate nature of their writing is difficult enough to read, let alone apply them to real situations.

It is true that since the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan and other hardline conservatives painted humanities and social science professors as a bunch of ex-hippies looking to badly influence students with their Communist-inspired ideology, these majors have been on a steady decline. It seems that everyone who was anyone who went to college ran to the MBA programs. Those who really wanted to major in something that mattered took hardline sciences such as Biology, Physics, or Chemistry in order to obtain entrance into medical or nursing schools. Still others who wanted a quick, guaranteed job after college majored in elementary education. For the most part, by the time I enrolled in college in the late 1990s, people only majored in other Humanities/Liberal Arts courses to help them pass their LSATs and enter into Law School.

Thus, at this late date in the year of our Lord, most people ask me, "What in the Hell did you major in English for?" My answer is simply, "I like to read." Most people do not understand the purpose behind a humanities/liberal arts major because they cannot easily translate these majors into six-figure jobs. Most college undergraduates attend college to make money. The formula goes: 4 years of college + self-deprivation of the college life = big bucks, authority, and prestige upon matriculation. Since the 1980s, fewer and fewer jobs have been awaiting Humanities/Liberal Arts majors -even at the Ph.D. level. The degrees are equally difficult to obtain, since theories relating to human culture are never as simple as even the most difficult calculus equations. Humans just aren't that predictable. The purpose of a humanities/liberal arts education is to expose students to other cultures and other times in the human famiy through art/literature/anthropology/music/theatre/dance/philosophy/psychology/history, etc. And hopefully, along the way, we learn something about ourselves. We learn, through an engaging study of history, that it does not have to always repeat itself, and that people do not fit into neat little labels. But most of all, a degree in the humanities/liberal arts teaches us how to think about our world. LIBERAL ARTS AND THE HUMANITIES TEACHES US HOW TO THINK.

And seriously thinking about problems before we try to solve them really is priceless. If I have any criticism of American culture at large is that it is anti-intellectual. We continue to be the dumb jocks of the world -all muscle and no brain. Our current political discourse encourages all emotion and no reason. Other countries laugh at us because they can. Let me provide some prime and contemporary examples of where more liberal arts/humanities course would help our world reputation.

1. During last year's Presidential election, the Right accused Barack Obama of being a "Muslim/Islamic terrorist," and then proceeded to play clips of a very militant sermon from his long-term pastor, Jeremiah Wright. People were calling and twittering in to various political pundit shows saying how they were afraid of this "Muslim terrorist" who sat in church all of those years and listened to hatred from that antiwhite pastor. Sigh. When was the last a Muslim regularly attended your local churches? I've never known a Muslim to attend a Christian church regularly, seeing as how they have mosque sevices to fill their spiritual needs.

2. Not simple enough for you? Let's look at the healthcare debate. Why should we listen to people who use government/tax-payer funded healthcare tell us that government/tax-payer funded healthcare is bad? In case you don't know, all government workers/Congressmen use government/tax-payer funded healthcare...including Republicans. I was so embarassed for old people when they said, they don't want government-funded healthcare and the government had better not touch their Medicare. I can hear the French and Canadians laughing even in South Mississippi.

3. It's not American to pay taxes, but it is American to send soldiers to foreign countries to take natural resources. If not for taxes, who pays for wars?

4. Somehow, being gay has become a cardinal sin in America, but we're the fattest country in the world. Do I have the only Bible in the world that lists gluttony, not homosexuality, as one of the seven abominations before the Lord?

5. Celebrating Halloween is fine, but Harry Potter is witchcraft? How are the two different?

6. Wow, here's a good one. Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin tell people to watch out for liberal news bias and liberal news agendas. Those poor conservatives are always under threat, even though 91% of all talk radio is conservative talk radio and they have an entire news network devoted to their agenda. I guess the other 9% is REALLY dangerous.

These are just a few examples. I could go on and on. But hey, I'm writing to Americans, and you're tired of reading by now. Thanks for sticking around this long. Think about this, most of our greatest leaders, presidents, and thinkers were liberal arts majors. However, George Bush II had an MBA from an Ivy League school. Bill Clinton, on the other hand, studied in three liberal arts areas before attending law school: Philosophy, Economics, and Political Science. One left a surplus. The other left a deficit. THINK about it.

Barack Obama, Political Chess Master II (Special Commentary)

Last night, I watched as this historic healthcare reform passed. There was much drama and action. The procedure itself has the making of a very good movie: the Tea Party members spitting on members of Congress and calling them racial/sexual epithets, Jessie Jackson Jr. having to bang that gabble and raise his voice to call for order during a very heated verbal exchange, John Boehner invoking scripture trying to shame a few more Democrats away from the "Yes" box. I tell you. I was on the edge of my seat.

The highlight came when a cool President Obama, standing in front of a very emotional and passionate Vice President Biden said, "This is what change looks like." As cool and as calm as expect any Black man to be, he looked square into the eyes of his political adversaries and he said in so many words, "Checkmate."
I bubbled over with laughter. My eyes brimmed with tears as I remembered the Lion of the Senate, a rich man who devoted almost his entire career to attaining healthcare for those less fortunate than himself. Then, I became uncontrollably angry because the public option/expansion of Medicaid for everyone is not in this bill. Why in the Hell would they take out such a huge victory for the American people? I mean, it's such a big bill that includes....

Then, exactly ten minutes after Barack Obama declared "checkmate," I realized that I don't know what is in this bill. Yes, I am a political junkie who watches at least four hours of political commentary every day, and I don't know what the heck is in this bill. I know if I don't know what's in it, all of those fanatics out there yelling about socialized medicine don't know, either.
So far, the coverage of this historic change has not been on the specifics of this bill. We saw the sausage making process, but not the ingredients of the links. Media focus has been on the strategy of the game, the coaches' game plays on each side, rather than what was happening on the field. Who wins? Who loses? Who's going to suffer at the polls? Who's going to benefit? What's Obama going to do next? How have the Republicans been so effective at controlling the message? What message? Aside from scaring the hell out of folks about death panels and "socialized medicine," there hasn't been a message.

So, the public option is out, but what's in? I don't know. The opposers of the bill don't know. This factor, including the ramping up of the rhetoric of fear and the constant referral to this bill as "Obama care", further affirms my view that this whole ordeal has been more about fear of what this Black man, leader of the free world, can do than about policy-making. Inciting violence against Barack Obama and the Democrats smacks of the jealous jouissance of Southern lynch picnics. What was that dark day in America's history all about? Power play dynamics and phallic authority. Just listen to Rush Limbaugh...you don't have to take my word for it.

Sadly, our public discourse is stil informed by white supremacy and jealous sexual projections. Sadly, those people who were out there spitting on lawmakers and taunting them probably need that help the most. Sadly, those people out there probably cannot even define the very words that very rich, white men like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh told them to use. Sadly, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh know exactly what they are doing. Sadly, those folks do not know that they are being used in a powerful class war and a fear of redistribution of wealth and elitism. They are no better than those young, poor white boys who died in the Civil War to enrich the pockets of wealthy plantation overlords, a class they could never belong to. Sadly, those people and their children will also benefit the most from the passage of such a bill, in spite of their manifest hatred.

So, even though President Obama cannot directly say it to his adversaries, I will. Check mate. "On to the next one" in the words of Jay-Z.

Some advice for all political pundits -liberal and conservatives - get used to a new, cooler style of leadership. We are dealing with a very calculated political genius, not someone prone to egotistical, masculine posture. There's actually some substance behind his exterior, and nobody can rush him. He's the chess master. You don't rush a chess master before he makes his move. He must study the board from every angle. He must study his opponent's peices from every angle, anticipate his move, and be prepared to counter it. That takes more than posturing. That takes brains. And brains is what we have back in the White House after an eight year vacuum.

Once Again, Corporate (Oil) Greed Escapes Scrutiny

As an undergraduate, I was introduced to a phrase that I've since grown to loath and despise: "liberal news media." I've often wondered what my fellow college students meant by it. I've always wondered what "power" lay in the hands of those "liberal news media" giants. I've always wondered why this "conspiracy" seems to be so easily used and believed by the Right after they face a defeat. I've always wondered why this phrase is so effective, seeing as how some of the most popular programs on television and radio are hosted by very, very conservative voices like Rush and Bill'O.

I've despised this phrase because news is news. From the BBC to CNN to Fox to MSNBC...news is news. As a matter of fact, Fox tells more world news than CNN or MSNBC. So could my classmates be talking about the spin shows, of which there are an equal number of conservative and liberal-leaning ones on the air?

I've despised this phrase because most of these shows, whether liberal or conservative-leaning, fail to criticize factors that are of the utmost importance. I'll give you a prime example. We are in an economic crisis. Over 600,000 people lost jobs in January alone. Political pundits, both liberal and conservative, have credited several factions for the cause of this economic downfall. Most have boiled it down to greedy corporate CEO's, banks doling out subprime loans to new homeowners who could have qualified for fixed-rate loans, a bloated and swollen housing market, and the disappearance of the smokestack economy.

Politicians in D.C. battle over how to get us out of this mess, while the pundits are allowed to spin it whichever way they please.

However, there is this one factor...one big, huge, gigantic factor that the "liberal news media" and "conservative crusaders" have thus far refuse to talk about...the role of big oil in this economic collaspe. If the saying is, "So goes GM, so goes America," a better alternative to that would be," So goes Exxon, so goes GM, so goes America." Oil prices, for the past six years, have been astronomical. We have been getting raped at the pump, and seem powerless to do anything about it. Nobody is saying anything about it. Period. In the midst of this crisis of unemployment and defaulted credit card/home loan payments, we know of at least one company who is posting record profits: Exxon.

It is my understanding, from a GM insider, that cars that use alternative sources of energy have been available since the mid-1980s. Remember that hideous electric car GM introduced in the 1980s? Whatever happened to it? Pressure from powerful oil lobbyists and the fact that we've had an oil barron in power for almost a decade have kept us helplessly dependent upon crude oil. It has been a battle of infrastructure. GM, Ford, Dodge, and Chrysler could produce these cars on a mass scale for years and years. And we, as smart consumers, could buy them. What the lobbyist have been successful in doing is blocking the infrastructure changes needed to support these manufacturers. If consumers buy these cars without proper infrastructure support, it would be like buying a gas-burning car, and not having any gas stations to refuel them. What sense would that make?

Conservative senators have been very successful in painting infrastructure updates and improvements as wasteful, porkbarrel, earmark spending. Conservative senators have been very successful in painting American car companies as behind our foreign counterparts when it comes to building cheap, efficient cars. In short, they are blaming GM and being silent about Exxon and their own complicity in this crisis. Now, we are suffering. As the pink slips become more and more numerous, has anyone noticed that the price of gas is creeping up again? Just as spring and summer are right around the corner and people are having to drive further for jobs that pay less. Once again, gas will consume a big chunk of the family budget.

Has anyone noticed how expensive diesel is? Diesel is slow-burning, and I guess the oil companies calculated the difference in and pushed up the price. If we don't drive diesel cars, how does this effect us, you ask? I'm glad you did. Truckers use diesel. Truckers deliver our goods. The price of delivering these goods is calculated in with the price of these goods once they reach us in the grocery store. So, if diesel rises, so does the price of milk, eggs, cheese, and everything else you can name.

I'm going to stop here, and wait for at least one person to bring up the oil culprits. I'm stopping here because I'm often astounding by the myopic vision of American business men. They are like race horses. The green blinders are on and they can see only one path. A really smart business man or woman would be leading the world in finding alternative fuel sources and infrastructure building. A smart business woman or man would have these markets already cornered.

I'm stopping because I'm angry. We get raped at the pump, and are supposed to be silent about it. Meanwhile, right-leaning people continue to blame the "liberal news media" who are also complicit in this crisis in their silences. Once again, politicians have put the greed of big oil ahead of the dire needs of their constituents. The fact that everyone, including the "liberal news media" personalities can remain silent about this outrageous display of greed and control over American consumer power, shows a blatant disregard for the needs and welfare of the entire American proletariat, be we conservative or liberal. The boys at the top apparently don't give a damn about us.